


Lost

by windandthestars



Category: Arctic Air
Genre: Angst, Community: hc_bingo, F/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-29
Updated: 2012-02-29
Packaged: 2017-10-31 22:13:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/348885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windandthestars/pseuds/windandthestars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He’s lost so much already she doesn’t want him to lose her too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost

**Author's Note:**

> Pre-canon. Spoilers for C-TVAK.
> 
> For hc_bingo's February mini-challenge postage stamp (lost childhood, stalker, unrequited pining, grief (wildcard)).

Last Thursday afternoon felt so far away now: laughing with Susie, grinning over getting the top score on the Physics exam. Everything had been like it always was, until Mel hadn't come home that night. By Friday, there wasn’t anyone around to make her go to school, no one to stop her from erasing the absentee call from the school on the answering machine or from spending the entire afternoon in the hanger. Marie was here now though, waiting patiently as Krista stared gloomily at the large brick building. It was the last place she wanted to be, but Mel had ordered her out of the house that morning, despite the fact she had been up half the night- carefully concealed in the shadows, sitting quietly on ladders, watching Bobby. He'd disappear for hours on another flight, or to catch some sleep in the cab of Mel's truck and she would wait, bringing him water and whatever food she could manage to make him eat.

She had had her student pilot permit for months, but there was no way anyone was letting her anywhere near a plane, accompanied or not. It's frustrating watching everyone rally, scrabble around with their assigned tasks while she sits reeling, utterly useless. She's just as good a pilot as Bobby if not better, but Mel had sworn he'd tan her hide if she set foot near one of his planes. Arctic search and rescue was on the job as was every spare pilot Arctic Air had. They would find Silas, it was only a matter of time.

She only hoped it was soon, soon enough. Bobby was drifting away; he was obsessed. She didn't blame him, not really, but it hurt when he looked right past her, ignored her. She was a lost little puppy following in his wake. It's been a week and a half since she's seen him smile and she's terrified.

There was a part of her that had always thought that one day Bobby and his big ideas would leave her for bigger and better things. He would come back though, he had to. The North was as much a part of him as it was her, but now that the North had stolen his father, his impish grin and his fearlessness she wasn't so sure.

"Out you go." Marie prompts gently and Krista shoves the door open. She's hardly slammed it shut again when she's surrounded. Susie's there but most of the kids she knows only as friends of Bobby's. They all want to know what's going on. Where's Bobby? When's he coming back?

Krista pushes past them all. She needs to pick up the work she's missed, the work Bobby's missed and find a way to stash her bag somewhere she can get to it. She has gym at eleven. It might be cold, but it's not cold enough to stop Mrs. Wilson from making them run outside. Fresh air was good for you she always insisted. 

It would be a bit of a crapshoot sneaking off when Mrs. Wilson wasn't looking, but it was worth the risk. She doubts anyone would give her detention now, not with her current "home situation.” Even so, it’s not a foolproof plan. She'll be stuck outside in her gym uniform until she's sure Mel's on his lunch break and it's safe to sneak around back to find Bobby. She's tempted just to waltz into the office, there's not much Mel can do about it, but she knows that wouldn't be fair, even if all he could do was send her back to school. She is after all pretty sure he'd yelled himself out over the weekend when he'd found out she'd hitched a ride to the grocery store and back.

There was plenty of food at the Martins’, plenty of food staying warm on Marie's stove, but Krista liked the peace and quiet of her own home. It hadn't been tainted with sorrow, not yet anyway and she wanted to hang onto that, even if it meant crappy sandwiches on stale white bread and eating peanut butter out of the jar with the last clean fork.

She doesn't spend much time around the house, despite what her dad thankfully thinks, but it's enough. Enough to remember what the good times were like so that when she hears Bobby's voice exhausted and determined over the radio or watches him walk in from the tarmac empty handed, her heart doesn't shatter. He’s lost so much already she doesn’t want him to lose her too.


End file.
